To Didcot from Swindon and the west - from December 2023

[whole diary]

[grahame]

"We have reviewed the calling pattern at Didcot to seek to address the uneven distribution of calls originally created in May 23 while protecting the acceleated Bristol services"

"New plan creates a 4 per hour calling plan for both up and down services"

From London, yes, it does. But one of them goes to Oxford and from Swindon and the West:

Didcot from Swindon - from December
xx:05 ex Cardiff
xx:17 ex Cheltenham
xx:28 ex Bristol

Didcot to Swindon
xx:08 to Cheltenham
xx:36 to Bristol
xx:52 to Cardiff

So that's a 37 minute gap from Swindon.  It does not address the un-evenness - quite the reveres as far as I can see, as previuously the maximum gap was 29 miutes (reading GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s diagrams).  Could it be that this change is also going to make money saving through split tickets less convenient?

The fourth service at Didcot in each hour will be a Paddington to Oxford service and a Nprth Cotswold to Paddington service. This service will replace the turbo shuttle between Didcot and Oxford.  I suspect (can someone confirm) that this will save a train (GWR talk of "rationalising" the service.

How good is the timekeeping of the train coming off the North Cotswold line? It's planned to go forward at xx:44 from Didcot to Paddington, in the middle of the 37 minute gap, but will this be robust?  Are North Cotswold delays going to percolate?

[IndustryInsider]

Regarding the Didcot<>Oxford service…

It saves a unit but only for part of the day, so the total units required stays the same AIUI^▸ ('as I understand it').  It does create an extra path I suppose, which could potentially be useful for freight or East West Rail.

It also frees up a driver, who can do other things…but the depot at Oxford is very over staffed anyway and ‘Didcot shuttles’ are a key part of their work allocation.

There is usually plenty of room on a 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) on a Paddington to Oxford journey, but anything from the North Cotswolds is often close to capacity leaving Oxford.

Disappointing changes on many levels.

[ChrisB]

So that's a 37 minute gap from Swindon.  It does not address the un-evenness - quite the reveres as far as I can see, as previously the maximum gap was 29 minutes (reading GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s diagrams).  Could it be that this change is also going to make money saving through split tickets less convenient?

The number of customers from Swindon actually wanting to alight at Didcot isn't many in the scheme of things - many of those want to change: either onto Oxford services or the RDG^▸ (Rail Delivery Group, or Reading station, depending on context) stoppers - so are likely to use the two services an hour that 'connect' with the shuttles and/or stoppers to RDG.

The fourth service at Didcot in each hour will be a Paddington to Oxford service and a North Cotswold to Paddington service. This service will replace the turbo shuttle between Didcot and Oxford

.

So one IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) is replacing the two turbo shuttles? Is that what you mean? A reduction (not replacement) in service between DID^▸ (Didcot Parkway) and OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) will affect far more passengers that your SWI^» (Swindon - next trains)/OXF changes. Please confirm or clarify.

I suspect (can someone confirm) that this will save a train (GWR talk of "rationalising" the service.

I can understand the want to get as many turbos to the south west as possible with the Castles disappearing, but this change if confirmed is to much.

How good is the timekeeping of the train coming off the North Cotswold line? It's planned to go forward at xx:44 from Didcot to Paddington, in the middle of the 37 minute gap, but will this be robust?  Are North Cotswold delays going to percolate?

The GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) copes agt the moment with the North Cots timekeeping - I don't see why it shouldn't still frankly. What's changing to make it any worse?

[grahame]

The fourth service at Didcot in each hour will be a Paddington to Oxford service and a North Cotswold to Paddington service. This service will replace the turbo shuttle between Didcot and Oxford

.

So one IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) is replacing the two turbo shuttles? Is that what you mean? A reduction (not replacement) in service between DID^▸ (Didcot Parkway) and OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) will affect far more passengers that your SWI^» (Swindon - next trains)/OXF changes. Please confirm or clarify.

"A" rather than "the" - so one IET and one turbo between Didcot and Oxford, rather than two turbos Alternate turbos (so one every 2 hours) will carry on to Banbury.

[grahame]

The GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) copes agt the moment with the North Cots timekeeping - I don't see why it shouldn't still frankly. What's changing to make it any worse?

Passengers from Oxford to / via Swidon being shunted off the local turbo and onto the train coming though from the single line sections, pehaps from as far as Hereford.    And passengers from Didcot headed towards London joining that service rather than one of the others coming off a double track route.

[ChrisB]

I don't see why that should affect timekeeping?

[eightonedee]

The fourth service at Didcot in each hour will be a Paddington to Oxford service and a Nprth Cotswold to Paddington service.

Does this mean an hourly stopping service from Reading and all stations to Cholsey for Oxford?

[grahame]

The fourth service at Didcot in each hour will be a Paddington to Oxford service and a Nprth Cotswold to Paddington service.

Does this mean an hourly stopping service from Reading and all stations to Cholsey for Oxford?

No ...


Taking a sample hour at Oxford ... GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) trains leaving for the South
11:00 to Paddington calls at Didcot until December
11:06 to Didcot becomes 11:04
11:29 to Paddington (ex Great Malvern) calls at Didcot from December
11:37 to Didcot ceases in December

GWR trains arriving from the South
11:15 from Paddington calls at Didcot
11:24 from Didcot ceases in December
11:42 from Paddington (to Worcester Shrub Hill)
11:48 from Didcot becomes 11:52 from December

[ChrisB]

So the intermediate stations between OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) & DID^▸ (Didcot Parkway) see their service drop by half? From two to one tph^▸ (trains per hour)?

[didcotdean]

One of the current Didcot-Oxford half-hourly shuttles off-peak is usually non-stop so there isn't much of a drop in service for the intermediates. There are a couple of exceptions to this but in these cases it misses out a stop at that station on the next or previous service.

[ChrisB]

Culham appears to get 2tph most hours between 1000 & 1600

[IndustryInsider]

Culham appears to get 2tph most hours between 1000 & 1600

It gets two trains per hour most hours if you mean one heading towards Didcot and the other towards Oxford?  Not how one would usually describe ‘tph^▸ (trains per hour)’ levels.

[ChrisB]

I misread the NRE^▸ (National Rail Enquiries) journey planner - apologies

[Richard Fairhurst]

How good is the timekeeping of the train coming off the North Cotswold line? It's planned to go forward at xx:44 from Didcot to Paddington, in the middle of the 37 minute gap, but will this be robust?  Are North Cotswold delays going to percolate?

Lousy at the moment, but then the Cotswold Line always falls apart in the autumn.